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Fashioning the Garbage

For those of us who mindlessly engage in consumption binges, have you considered what happens to all the material waste you produce (if you have not caught on, I am not talking about the stuff drained down the toilet)? I think I know the answer. There was a very interesting piece in the WSJ – Grappling With a Garbage Glut – which gives us enormous cause for pause and some soul searching. Among industrialized nations, the USA is the worst offender, no surprise here, dumping on average about 7 lbs per person per day which translates to about 102 tons per year! Staggering. Some other facts, 19 billion pounds of polystyrene peanuts make their way to the landfills. Disposable cutlery (knives, forks and spoons) waste is about 40 billion! There is enough steel in the garbage dumps to reconstruct the whole of Manhattan!! And get this, Texas can be shrink…